On Tuesday, July 30 five writers and two musicians performed in support for Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed the mass surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, at the Reader’s Quarry Bookstore in Woodstock, NY. The readers: Clark Strand, Carl Watson, James Lasdun, Violet Snow and me. The singers: Paul McMahon, Dan Sofaer.
This free event was sponsored by Friends of Edward Snowden and Hipsters for Obama.
Clark Strand read the following three pieces:
Roll
I realized that the NSA was listening in on my phone calls, so I decided to tell them a story to keep them entertained. It was a long story about the rise and fall of a great nation. Only it wasn’t great in the way its people thought. It was founded upon butchery, slavery, misogyny, and stealing other people’s land. What was great about it was its ability to tell itself a different story: a story that wasn’t true.
The whole nation was filled with storytellers who all told that story to one another. They were everywhere, and together they truly were great. Just not for the reasons they thought. They didn’t even know they were storytellers. It was sad, in a way. Because they didn’t know how gifted they were.
Somewhere in the middle the NSA grew bored and stopped listening. They didn’t say so exactly. It’s the kind of thing as storyteller you just know. But I told it through to the end anyway, because I was on a roll.
37 Reasons Why Trees Will Win the Coming Revolution
1. It is impossible to tell which one is leading the revolt.
2. The NSA will never know what they are thinking, because it can’t tell how they talk to one another.
3. You can’t kill their souls by cutting their trunks.
4. They understand reincarnation and renewal.
5. They fathom the true nature of things and are never deluded or deceived.
6. They make oxygen, and we don’t.
7. They feed the earth and its creatures freely and generously without taking thought for themselves.
8. Trees are the mothers of insects and the fathers of birds.
9. They get along with one another and cooperate well with diversity.
10. They carry no grudges.
11. They know the complete history of the Earth.
12. Their heads are in the Earth, not in the sky.
13. They were green before green became a marketing technique.
14. They have no part in the collective psychosis of modern humans.
15. Trees are steady and patient.
16. They aren’t restless: they can live for centuries in a single spot.
17. They don’t pick up and move when the going gets tough.
18. When you burn them or cut them, they just keep coming back.
19. They are the custodians of the planet’s ancestral wisdom.
20. They have the Goddess on their side.
21. The planet is on their side.
22. They are still undecided on the question of whether Homo sapiens were a good idea or not.
23. They don’t use money or weapons.
24. They are in league with the wind.
25. They aren’t afraid of storms.
26. They understand climate change in a way that humans never will.
27. More trees are the sign of a healthier planet, more humans are the sign of a disease.
28. The people in Turkey rose up to protect the last tree-filled park in Istanbul.
29. Unlike humans, trees can grow their own shade.
30. They don’t understand irony.
31. They know that Monsanto and monotheism are the same.
32. They never forgot the Divine Feminine, and never even needed to call Her that.
33. People worshipped trees before they worshipped God.
34. A tree’ s religion does not rely on words.
35. The trees control the weather in ways that humans will never understand.
36. Their generals have minds that think too slow for humans to follow.
37. Their strategy and their climate are one.
Kali Ma #11
Kali Ma arrived last night from Canada
Without Her sword. It was the only place
She could get in. The borders had been closed.
“Mother, you’ re defenseless now,” I cried.
“The people here won’ t respect a naked
Village girl with empty hands and pockets
And hair so long it trails the ground.
We must hide you on an altar somewhere.”
But Kali said, “That’s not what I intend.
For when they seize my hand to take me
And bind me to their oblivion, that’s just
When I begin to dance. You’re too young
To remember a time that happened
At the close of an age, when men forgot
Their Maker. I always come like this,
My defenseless body an invitation
They will never be able to resist.
I am the knife too sharp for any sheath.
Do they suppose I’ve forgotten
How their bones were put together?
Every good cookmaid knows her meat.”
Dan Sofaer, proprietor of The Readers Quarry, sang:
Take Me with You to the Airport
Well, this man Edward Snowden was a patriotic man.
Along comes 9-11 he says, “I’ll do what I can!”
He joined the Special Forces, but he had a great big fall,
And then his commanding officer said, “Information’s your call.”
He gathered information and that means “Organize!”;
Keep track of the bad guys, well, that would sure be wise.
But he heard some racist comments and that upset him much,
But they kept him on for five long years cause he had the magic Snowden touch.
Take me with you to the airport, won’t you please.
I want to go to Russia to defend my liberties
We’ll visit Edward Snowden and we’ll have some pelmenys.
Edward we are on our way to the airport, won’t you please.
A warrant from a FISA court is much too easy won.
99% acceptance rate; those boys are having fun!
You can listen in on my phone calls, I’ve got nothing to hide,
But journalists’ sources need protection; that’s known far and wide.
But there’s a deeper problem called civil society.
Ordinary citizens want oversight, not just security.
The political class is out of control on a paranoid power trip,
So Snowden sent a message: people try to get a grip!
Take me with you to the airport, won’t you please.
We’re gonna take the NSA and ship it overseas.
Sharing data’s not enough, let’s share employees.
Edward we are on our way to the airport, won’t you please.
James Lasdun quoted a poem by Auden:
Private faces in public places
Are wiser and nicer
Than public faces in private places.
I read the following three poems:
Ode to Snowden
Snowden was born on June 21, 1983,
the feast day of St. Aloysius Gonzaga,
an Italian aristocrat who forsook a
“society of fraud, dagger, poison and
lust” in Florence to become a Jesuit in
1585. When the plague struck Rome,
St. Aloysius toiled in a Jesuit hospital,
comforting the dying. He contracted
the disease himself, and died at the age
of 23. Edward was born in Elizabeth City,
North Carolina. His father was an officer
in the Coast Guard, his mother a clerk at
a federal court. On May 7, 2004 Edward
enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Special
Forces recruit. His goal: to fight in Iraq.
“I felt like I had an obligation as a human
being to free people from oppression,” he
said. But Edward was discharged four
months later, having broken both his legs
in a training accident. He joined the CIA
to work on IT security, because he was
a “computer wizard.” In 2007, the CIA
set him up as a fake diplomat in Geneva,
where he worked on computer network
security. In 2009 Edward left the CIA,
working for Dell inside a National
Security Agency facility on a US military
base in Japan. In 2013 he moved to the
consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton
at the Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center
in Hawaii as an “infrastructure analyst.” In the
spring of 2013, Edward leaked documents to
Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian. On June 10,
he was terminated by Booz Allen Hamilton for
“violation of the firm’s code of ethics.” Their code
of ethics states: “No one may inform the police or
the press about any of our criminal activities.”
Snowden wrote: “I understand that I will be made
to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this
information to the public marks my end.”
O seven daughters of Hermes, rain down
lily-scented blessings on E. Snowden, who
blew the Golden Whistle of Higher Vigilance,
for us, the citizens of once-proud America!
My Fear
I have never been so fearful, writing
messages. Recently I met “Pedrulia,”
an activist poet, and sent her a note on
Facebook; I was going to conclude:
“Let us fight together for an embracing
revolution!” Then I thought: “How will
the National Security Agency construe
this sentence? Will it endanger Pedrulia,
as well as me?” Instead, I settled on:
“Let’s make trouble for the patriarchy.”
The NSA is unafraid of feminists, I hoped.
I have become like a radical in Stalinist
Russia, constantly evolving a code,
fashioning a literary cloak & mask.
A Protest
At LaGuardia
Airport, Homeland
Security confiscated
my lunch: a plastic
container of curried
lentils, sautéed
broccoli and brown
rice. “You idiots!” I
shouted. “Lunch is
not a bomb! Lentils
are not explosive!
Your insane paranoia
is forcing me to starve!”
Then I sang this song:
Song for Snowden
This is a song for Edward Snowden,
and the airplane he rode in
to Hong Kong;
this is a song for Snowden.
In an airport in Moscow he sits,
he must live by his wits.
He blew the whistle;
this is an epistle to Snowden.
We give thanks to Thor and Odin,
for sending us Snowden.
With his bravery
he fought the knavery
of the NSA.
This is an essay for Snowden.
Violet Snow read:
Prayer for the NSA
I pray that the National Security Agency may know that security
does not come from taking away our rights.
I pray that the NSA may understand that security comes from within,
from a populace that is nourished and treats people in other countries fairly.
I pray that the NSA may provide security for workers in
Bangla Desh and Indonesia, so the U.S. may not be known as the exploiter of the poor.
I pray that the NSA may turn to educating Americans
to use less energy, be less greedy, forsake their sense of entitlement.
I pray that the NSA may seek guidance from the ancestors
and from the indigenous peoples.
I pray that the NSA may plant its roots in the earth
instead of in cyberspace.
I pray that the NSA may recognize the courage it took Edward Snowden
to do what he believed was right.
I pray that the NSA may find real security,
to the point where the NSA has no reason to exist.